Thursday 18 December 2008

RAE 2009

Analysis done by the Times Higher Education suggests that the results of the 2008 RAE show no major changes to the overall research landscape, 'the biggest research-intensive-intensive universities are still clustered at the top of the table of excellence, followed by the smaller -research-intensive institutions'.

However, there were some significant ranking changes for individual institutions. Cardiff University dropped out of the top ten to 22nd place. THES reports that it may have sacrificed its quality rating my submitting a high volume of staff which may help when it comes to research funding allocation. Southampton fell from 11th to a tie at 14th while Hertfordshire rose from 93rd to 58th.

Research top 20: (Average research score on numbers - source The Guardian)

1. Cambridge 2,975
2. Oxford 2,959
3. London School of Economics 2,957
4. Imperial College 2,943
5. University College London 2,844
6. Manchester 2,823
7. Warwick 2,799
8. York 2,780
9. Essex 2,772
10. Edinburgh 2,747
11. Queen Mary and Westfield 2,726
12. St Andrews 2,724
13. Bristol 2,723
14. Durham 2,721
15. Southampton 2,715
16. Leeds 2,715
17. Sheffield 2,715
18. Bath 2,711
19. Lancaster 2,711
20. King's College London 2,693

The Guardian reports that 'some of the best universities have large numbers of low-performing researchers... About a third of research by the top six universities was rated two-star or one-star. Some 28% of Cambridge's researchers scored one and two stars, as did 34% of UCL's.' However, Cambridge has the highest proportion of outstanding research in the UK. Of the 2,040 staff whose work was submitted, 71% was deemed to be world-leading or internationally excellent.

Information about subsequent funding allocation will be released on 4 March 2009.

Read The Guardian article in full.

Read the THES article in full

Visit the official RAE site.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Does anyone else think it's wrong that within one institution, different departments are rated differently? To my knowledge, each department is scored based on 4 criteria - Publications, Environment, Esteem and something else which escapes me at the moment. They are not weighted equally. What happens is that some departments get a large percentage of their score from Esteem but others from Publications, so you can't compare departments within a University or between Universities with any level of fairness. The entire RAE system would appear to be a joke, therefore.